Tags:
Journalism of Courage
A fire had broken out on the electric pole outside my home. The wiremen came, and pronounced that the cable had got burnt and that they had to replace it. I was thrilled by their transparency. 8220;That8217;s the difference between bureaucratic control and private management! I told my wife.
An hour passed. My wife began to ask me what my private management was up to. They will be here any time, I assured her. 8220;But it will get dark in an hour,8221; she shot back. Finally, when nothing happened even after a couple of hours, I phoned the company. The attendant was prompt. He told me that the problem will be attended to shortly.
Two people did turn up and said, 8220;Looks like the load is much more than the cable can bear.8221; This involved a complicated business of consulting bills to assess load capacities. Sunday intervened. The next day, I was at the office looking for Aggarwal, since the chief engineer was not in. Aggarwal was also unavailable so I was told to meet one Arun Kumar, who took me to a third man. Everybody wanted to help but no one did.
I found myself among agitated baldies, well-dressed youth, grey pensioners, potbellied businessmen and a haggard old woman ready to scratch everybody8217;s eyes out. Then, out of the blue, one familiar figure recognised me and asked, 8220;How come are you sitting here?8221; I poured out my story. He commented wryly, 8220;If this is how you fare imagine the fate of common citizens!8221;
Meanwhile a tentative figure was worked out for the repairs. By the next day it was higher: Rs 23,000, and we had to buy the pipe too. The forenoon was consumed in paperwork, forms had to be filled and stamped by the contractor. The mode of payment posed a problem. Cheques apparently was unacceptable. The next day I was there with my pocket bulging with currency notes, but the final figure took more time to compute. It became higher. 8220;Get photocopies of these sheets,8221; the cashier ordered. 8220;Can8217;t your company do even this?8221; I burst out. This hurdle, too, was cleared. Finally I asked the important question: who is to do the job? My ears awaited the words: 8220;Now it8217;s our headache.8221; But no.
The next morning, after more calls, the contractor8217;s men showed up. A short while later, the newspapers announced that our electricity bills were to go up. That was when I blew my fuse!
